Commodity and the Spectacle

http://www.guybourdin.org/

Guy Bourdin

This image screams commodity. It is not about anything other than the shoes. I think the artist is in full support of commodity culture and I guess he could be critiquing it as well. I think that Bourdin is supporting commodity culture because he purposefully took the woman's identity and overall importance out of the image by completely covering her by the poll and only showing us the objects in which one would be able to purchase. While reading the Society of the Spectacle a few of the excerpts in the chapters caught my eye as being related to this image one of which talks about how commodity is the "domination" and "total occupation" of the commodity,

         "The spectacle is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life. Not only is                   the relation to the commodity visible but it is all one sees: the world one sees is its world." ( Chapter 2, #42)

This quote is directly related to this image because the woman is taken completely out of the image and one is forced to only look at the commodity item, which are the shoes and the red jacket. This is also forced to happen because of the surroundings. There was nothing to look at besides the women in this striking red outfit, and then with the poll coving the face and hands we are forced even more to look at the shoes and jacket, which I am sure in the magazine this was shot for, has a list to the side stating where the consumer could find these shoes and the jacket and what the price was. 

This could also be a critique of  the commodity culture by the artist, by purposefully taking the woman's identity out of the image, which is out of her control,

"The agent of the spectacle placed on stage as a star is the opposite of the individual, the enemy of the individual in himself as well as in others. Passing into the spectacle as a model for identification. the agent renounces all autonomous qualities in order to identify himself with the general law of obedience to the course of things."

( Chapter 3, #61)

I think that by looking at this image, one might consider the artist making a statement about the model as a celebrity and how by being an icon, I guess, these people can be used themselves as a commodity, they are used to sell something because of the ability to be recognized. But they also lose that sense of identity, they are forced almost to express a human emotion toward something in order to make the spectacle seem real, "The decision celebrity must possess a complete stock of accepted human qualities. Official differences between stars are wiped out by the official similarity which is the presupposition of their excellence in everything."( Chapter 3, #61)

I think that this was a very eye opening book to read, and it opened up the way I view, pretty much everything, seeing as how our world is dominated by these spectacles of commodity. It is funny when I think really hard about it."